Gridiron Gang

While it's certainly true that originality in filmmaking is a hard thing to do, I often think it's even harder to do a formulaic film the right way. While I usually sink in my seat a little when it dawns upon me that I'm going to be able to plot out the entire course of the movie within the first 15 minutes, because I can already tell the film will have little if any to offer that I haven't seen before, sometimes a movie comes along that knows how to use its cliches to its advantage. Gridiron Gang is the latest film I can claim to hold this honor. The film is as cliched as all get out, and about as original as putting butter on bread. Yet, thanks to the fact that the film does not shy away or sanitize from its gritty subject matter (despite a PG-13 rating), and the fact that the movie actually makes us care about its characters, I was able to look past the old as the hills storytelling, and admire the film for the crowd pleaser it actually is.

What we have here is yet another inspirational "based on a true story" movie about a man trying to make a difference in the lives of troubled teens, albeit one that is done a bit better than the norm. Wrestling superstar Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson steps into the shoes of Sean Porter, a strict yet caring counselor at the notorious Camp Kilpatrick Juvenile Detention Center in L.A. Sean is beginning to worry that he's not making enough of an impression on the troubled youth and young gang members that he tries to straighten out during their short time under his supervision. As he explains in an opening narration, a vast majority of the kids who are sent there either wind up in prison a few years down the line after getting out, out wind up dead. Desperate for a way to reach out and impact the lives of the kids when they eventually get out of the Center, Sean proposes to his superiors the idea of starting a football team, hoping that will teach the troubled kids self respect, discipline, teamwork, and relying on each other despite the fact they come from "rival" gangs. It is his hope that this experience will teach the kids to rely on themselves and those around them, instead of gangs and violence.

Gridiron Gang follows a time-tested formula that features pretty much every troubled youth and sports movie cliche that you could think of. It's of no surprise to anyone, I'm sure, that the climax is set at a big game for Sean's team. However, for once, the big game is not the ultimate goal or victory. The victory is what Sean and his team have accomplished in the end. There is a touching and honest epilogue where Sean tells us in narration what happened to a lot of the kids on the team. Some of them have happy endings, some do not. Rather than ending with a football game, the movie continues and reminds us that this story is about the kids themselves, not a victory over a rival team. It is this reality that really took me by surprise and warmed me up to Gridiron Gang. Director Phil Joanou and screenwriter Jeff Maguire treat the material with a lot more respect and humanity than your typical underdog sports movie. Compare this to the other recent football movie, Invincible with Mark Wahlberg. That was a dull "inspirational" story where we learned absolutely nothing about the main character, and cared about nothing but simply parading a series of cliches and music montage sequences across the screen. Here, we actually get to know the characters, both Sean and his team, on and off the field. They may not be deep or fully three dimensional in personality, but they're a lot more interesting than the standard cookie cutter types that usually populate these stories.

A lot of the film's success has to do with the fact that this movie does not shy away from the harsh realities in the lives of these kids that surround Sean. For a PG-13 rated film, I was rather surprised by the brutality depicted during some murder sequences that happen early in the film. Unlike a movie say like Step Up, which featured a highly sanitized look at street life where almost nobody was in any danger whatsoever, this movie does not shy away from the harsher details, nor does it glorify them. These sequences are gritty and raw, and this spirit continues throughout the film. These are not black and white gang banger stereotypes, and an effort has been made to give these kids personalities. They may have done wrong, but the movie also allows us to see all sides of them, which is a big help in allowing the characters to endear themselves to the audience, so they don't come across as a mob of gang stereotypes. Sean, himself, gets a little bit of development outside of the main story, mostly surrounding his family, and the influence a verbally abusive father whom he has not spoken to in years still impacts him. While these touches may not be groundbreaking, the movie digs deeper into its own characters than I thought it would, and as a result, the movie turns out to be a pleasant surprise.

Not only does Gridiron Gang impress us with a better than expected angle on its material, it also helps us realize that Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson might have a career outside of the dumb action films he's been placed in so far in his career up to now. After a slew of forgettable bombs like Doom, Walking Tall, and The Scorpion King, the guy finally gets a role where he not only has to actually act, but manages to mostly impress with his performance. It's certainly not perfect (he seems to rely on the same five facial expressions in every scene), but he does have a commanding screen presence in this movie, and his heartfelt scenes where he talks one-on-one with one of the kids comes across as genuine instead of forced. If he can just fix that stone face of his, I think he'd actually have a good shot at some serious work. Rapper turned actor Xzibit shows personality and humor as Sean's best friend and co-worker at the Center who becomes his assistant coach on the team. As for the kids themselves, while only some of them get fully developed characters, those that do all stand out as genuinely talented young actors. I hope some of them can escape being typecast as "thug" or "urban" roles, because a lot of them seem to hold promise.

Gridiron Gang will never be mistaken for an original movie, or one that will be remembered by most a year from now. But, you can tell that the people behind this movie tried a little bit harder than most would when handed this kind of material. As a result, the film works despite its reliance on cliches. If anything, it proves that as long as the movie itself is done well enough, audiences won't mind hearing the same story told again. I certainly didn't mind, and I walked into the theater worn out on underdog sports movies. While it's not enough to revitalize the genre, the film proves that perhaps there's still some life left in it as long as the filmmakers care. For once, we have a crowd pleaser that actually pleases.

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